When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

In the past 30 years, light artists have reimagined an art form that has always had the ability to turn the night sky, or a simple window, into luminescence. Last fall, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts turned its southern glass wall into a parade of sound-sensing lights, Lightswarm, that changes with the movements of nearby people and things. Future Cities Lab, the San Francisco design company behind Lightswarm, has originated another notable light sculpture. Located by the YBCA's steps at 701 Mission, Murmur Wall will light up in arresting ways as it incorporates local trending search engine results and social media postings. Onlookers can offer their own contributions, which will feed into the Murmur Wall's data stream and light up the sculpture. What's trending in San Francisco? If you're walking by the YBCA, you can see firsthand — at least through light patterns that reflect the city's volatile internet habits.
Murmur Wall debuts Thursday at 6 p.m. and continues through May 31, 2017, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. Free; 415-978-2700 or ybca.org. More

Latest in Calendar

Browse Best Of

Share

Latest in Best Of

Pickup basketball is a weird social phenomenon where a bunch of strangers meet at a designated spot during a designated time to engage in an athletic competition governed by de facto rules established in some mythic rulebook.

Ghotsbusters? No. When heaps of smoke, ash, and fumes from the nearby Chevron Refinery enveloped their neighborhood, Richmond residents called Attorney John Burris to learn about their legal rights regarding this toxic fire.

This afternoon, Burris led civil rights attorneys in filing a lawsuit on behalf of over 1,000 Richmond residents against the Chevron refinery due to their gross "negligence in their safety mechanisms and how they responded to the fire," he said.

Burris pins their negligence on Chevron's failure to take corrective action when the company had known of the refinery's aging pipes since 2011.

"This was avoidable," he said. "This community deserves better. They should not have been subject to this explosion."

Richmond residents were there supporting Burris and his legal crew,
too. Charles H. Simmons, who has lived in North Richmond for more than two
years, described last Monday's blaze, when a vapor leak caused diesel-like gas to spark a fire at Chevron's Crude Unit No. 4, as hell on Earth.

"When I looked around I could see it going up, and when you held your
hand out, you'd get a handful of it as it came down," he said. "It was
raining -- one minute, you could see the sky, and 30 minutes later, you
could not."

While Burris says he understands the importance of Chevron to the mostly low-income community -- and to the nation, he's drawing the line here, saying that Chevron isn't going to get another free pass.

Out of this lawsuit, Burris hopes that Chevron will "understand the
gravity of its mistakes," he said. He hopes Chevron will put
mechanisms and monitors in place that will minimize the likelihood that
this kind destructive fire happens again.

"Years from now, society will look back and go, 'Oh my God! How did
we allow ultra-hazardous activities to be next to populations with
hundreds of thousands of people?'" attorney Matthew Kumin said. "At some
point, these [questions] have to be confronted. Right now, this is not
going to result in the closing of a plant, but hopefully we'll be able
to get monitors and some accountability."

"At the end of the day, one has to say enough is enough. It has to stop," Burris said.

Like us on Facebook

Slideshows

Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"